1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for arranging spacers at fixed points, a liquid crystal device, a method of manufacturing the liquid crystal device, an electronic apparatus with the liquid crystal device, and to a technique for arranging spacers between a pair of substrates.
2. Description of Related Art
In a liquid crystal device in which a liquid crystal layer is interposed between a pair of substrates, spacers in the form of resin balls, glass balls, or resin columns are arranged between the substrates in order to keep the gap between the substrates uniform.
Generally, such a liquid crystal device is manufactured by the following processes. First, after stacking electrodes and alignment layers on both a lower substrate and an upper substrate, an aperture that functions as a liquid crystal filling hole is formed in the peripheral edge portions of the lower substrate, and an unhardened sealing material is printed on the lower substrate. Then, the spacers are arranged on the surface of the lower substrate or the upper substrate. Next, after bonding the lower substrate to the upper substrate, the sealing material is hardened to manufacture an empty liquid crystal cell. Then, liquid crystal is injected into the empty liquid crystal cell by vacuum injection method, and the filling hole is sealed by the sealing material. Finally, an optical film, such as a retardation plate or a polarizing plate, is bonded to the outer surfaces of the lower substrate and the upper substrate to manufacture the liquid crystal device.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-188235 discloses a process of the above manufacturing processes, in which the spacers are arranged in a specific region of the liquid crystal cell by an inkjet method. FIG. 23 is a schematic view illustrating the schematic structure of a related art inkjet device. In the related art inkjet device, a nozzle head 260 with a plurality of nozzle holes 370 is provided in a fixed direction. The nozzle holes 370 are arranged in a direction parallel to a specific side of a pixel region 19 (the direction of the X axis). A spacer dispersion liquid is discharged from the nozzle holes 370 onto the substrates in the predetermined interval b, while the nozzle head 260 is scanned in a direction perpendicular to the arrangement direction of the nozzle holes 370 (the Y direction). A dispersion medium in the spacer dispersion liquid is evaporated, and thus the spacers 15 are arranged on the substrates.
In FIG. 23, the movement locus of the nozzle holes 370 during the scanning of the head is virtually illustrated by a broken lines L (a first virtual line), and the spacers 15 are arranged in the predetermined interval b to substantially come into line with the first virtual line L.